University of Chicago Library, Goodspeed Manuscript Collection Ms. 727, New Testament. Gospels (Georgius Gospels). Greg. 2266. Greece, 13th century.

Contents

Four gospels in Greek. Ammonian section and Eusebian canon numbers, lectionary headings, and chapter titles in the margins. Formerly Goodspeed Ms. Grk. 28.

  1. fols. 1r-6r Lectionary table (Synaxarion). Johannine lections, Easter to Pentecost (fol. 1r-1v). Matthean lections, Pentecost to New Year, 1 September (fols. 1v-4r). Lukan lections, September to Holy Week (fols. 4r-6r).
  2. fols. 6r-6v Eusebius of Caesarea, ca. 260-ca. 340, Letter to Carpianus, on the Gospel Canons.
  3. fols. 7r-8v Canon tables I-X.
  4. fol. 9r Hypothesis of Matthew.
  5. fols. 9r-10v Kephalaia of Matthew (68). Inscription.
  6. fols. 11r-78r Matthew.
  7. fol. 78v Hypothesis of Mark.
  8. fols. 78v-79v Kephalaia of Mark (48). Inscription.
  9. fols. 80r-122r Mark. Subscription.
  10. fols. 122r-122v Hypothesis of Luke.
  11. fols. 122v-123v Kephalaia of Luke (82).
  12. fols. 124r-192[b]v Luke.
  13. fols. 192[b]v-192[c]v Hypothesis of John.
  14. fol. 192[c]v Kephalaia of John.
  15. fols. 193r-244r John. Subscription and stichoi (2,300).
  16. fols. 244r-248r Lectionary table (Menologion, Holy Week, Heothina). September (fol. 244r); October (fol. 244v); November (fol. 245r); December (fol. 245r); January (fol. 245v); February (fol. 246r); March (fol. 246r); April (fol. 246r); May (fol. 246r); June (fol. 246v); July (fol. 246v); August (fol. 246v); Lenten lections (fol. 247r); Passion lections (fol. 247r); Good Friday canonical hours (fol. 247v); Good Friday and Saturday services (fol. 247v); eleven Heothina lections (fol. 248r).

Decoration

Canon Tables

Citations of concordant gospel sections arranged in grid formation. Headers in red (faded) above the cells contain circles in which names of the evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are abbreviated. Tables are capped with a series of arches.

Headpieces

Headpieces of floral, foliate, and geometric openwork design in red (faded) and blue (fols. 11r, 80r, 124r, 193r).

Initials

Major initials (25-50 mm) of red and blue in floral and foliate motifs. Minor initials in red (faded) set off from the text.

Physical Description

Support

Parchment. 200 x 145 mm.

Number of Leaves

261 leaves. Of these 8 are flyleaves of paper contemporary with the manuscript's rebinding of 1995, 4 are detached parchment leaves, 2 of which have been glued to flyleaves, and 2 are later parchment insertions.

Foliation

4 (unfoliated paper flyleaves) + 1 (foliated leaf glued to the verso of a paper flyleaf) + 2 (unfoliated parchment leaves) + 192 + 2 + 55 + 1 (foliated leaf glued to the recto of a paper flyleaf) + 4 (unfoliated paper flyleaves). Modern foliation in Arabic numerals in pencil 1-248. The leaf pasted onto the 4th front flyleaf has been designated fol. 249v (ink).

Collation

30 quires, each of 8 leaves. Two leaves have been inserted at the front of the manuscript, a title-page inscribed in ink, Codex Byzantinus Membranaceus Tetravangelium... ([i-ii]), and a canon table II ([iii-iv]), which was cut out of another manuscript. Parchment leaves original to the present quire 23 and lost at an unknown date, have been restored. These follow fol. 192 and are designated fols. 192b and 192c. Leaves thought to be original to the manuscript have been glued to a front and a back flyleaf.

Each quire numbered on the first folio (recto), and the last folio (verso) from fol. 11, α-λ, with the exception of quire 23's last folio (fol. 192[c]v), and that of quire 30.

Dimensions

Written space 145 x 95 mm (fol. 115r).

Layout

1 column, 25 lines. Ruling with hard point. Pricking in the outer margins.

Writing

Written in minuscule script in black ink (some fading).

Punctuation includes high point, comma, and marks of interrogation and diairesis. Quotation marks in either left or right margins next to each line of quoted text.

Text Divisions

Titles in red (faded). Lectionary indicators αρχε (beginning) and τελος (end) found in the text and margins.

Condition

Leaves trimmed resulting in the loss of some marginal text. Dirt, grease, and water stains.

Binding Description

Rebound in dyed goatskin over laminated millboard by Scott K. Kellar in 1995. Two brass clasps of the former blind-stamped pigskin binding (18th century) attached to new strap closures.

History

Origin

The manuscript is dated to the late 13th century, and is judged to have been written in Greece by a scribe associated with the illuminator and scribe Theodore Hagiopetrites and his workshop.

Provenance

Belonged to the Russian Archaeological Institute in Constantinople, shelfmark Ms. A2, where it was seen by New Testament text critic Caspar René Gregory (1846-1917) in 1906.

An inventory number A.M. n.71/inv. 43, thought to be that of a bookseller, was inscribed on the leaf which serves as the manuscript's title-page. The page format, content, and number are similar to that contained in a Slavic Orthodox Liturgical Book (A.M. n.62/inv. 44) of the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore (W.548).

Undated inscriptions of possible former owners Sarabu (verso, 4th front flyleaf), and Georgius (Γιωργι), for whom the manuscript was named (fol. 248r, lower margin). University of Chicago Libraries stamp (front flyleaf); notation (fols. 216v, 248r). Number 4995 encircled (title-page [i], fol. 1r).

Acquisition

Acquired by the University of Chicago from Maggs Bros. (London), December 1931, with funds provided by real estate developer Arthur T. Galt, Chicago businessman Frederick T. Haskell, and university trustee Martin A. Ryerson.

Bibliography

  1. Caspar René Gregory, Textkritik des Neuen Testamentes. (Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs, 1909), vol. III, p. 1204 (2266).
  2. Maggs Bros. (London, England), The art of writing, 2800 B.C. to 1930 A.D.: illustrated in a collection of original documents written on vellum, paper, papyrus, silk, linen, bamboo, or inscribed on clay, marble, stealite, jasper, haematite and chalcedony. (London: Maggs Bros., 1930), 542, pp. 73-74 (no. 51).
  3. Emil Karl Holzhäuser, "The Georgius gospels, another manuscript of Theodore of Hagios Petros." (Ph.D. diss., University of Chicago, 1934).
  4. Seymour de Ricci, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada. (New York: H. W. Wilson Company, 1935), vol. 1, p. 598.
  5. Kenneth W. Clark, A Descriptive Catalogue of Greek New Testament Manuscripts in America (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1937), pp. 263-265.
  6. Merrill Mead Parvis, The Story of the Goodspeed Collection ([Chicago]: s.n., 1952), pp. 19-20.
  7. Marcel Richard, Répertoire des bibliothèques et des catalogues de manuscrits grecs. (Paris: Centre national de la recherche scientifique, 1958), pp. 112-113 (Ms. A2).
  8. New Testament manuscript traditions. An exhibition based on the Edgar J. Goodspeed Collection of the University of Chicago Library, the Joseph Regenstein Library, January-March, 1973. University of Chicago. Library. Dept. of Special Collections. Exhibition catalogs ([Chicago: s.n., 1973]), 36, nos. 5 and 6.
  9. Robert S. Nelson, Theodore Hagiopetrites, a late Byzantine scribe and illuminator. Veröffentlichungen der Kommission für Byzantinistik Bd. 4 (Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften. Philosophisch-Historische Klasse) (Wien: Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, 1991), 217, pp. 96-97.